When I Shot A Man At War Poem Summary

The speaker recalls a time when he shot a man at war and realized if they would have met in a bar “we should sat us down to wet right many a nipperkin”. This is a topic that many readers do not see in poetry. The scathing poetic critique of war is a very revealing poem to the many readers. The story is a meaningful poem suggesting we should not judge a book by its cover and fight against one another before knowing that person. The speaker can be seen as a retired veratrin who is having flashbacks from being in the war. In the first stanza the reader is introduced to two people, but it is not clear who these people are. All the reader knows so far is that these two people have met each other at some point. The speaker says that if they …show more content…
The next stanza says,” but ranged as infantry, and staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, and killed him in his place”. The tone starts to change dramatically to a more serious tone although the meaning stays the same throughout the poem. The speaker finally tells where he and the man met. “Ranged as infantry,” means that the two men were in war with each other. Then the poem says they were standing face to face. This most likely means that they were on opposite sides of the fight. The speaker kills the man that he says he is standing face to face with. The last line in the stanza tells you that they were both trying to kill each other by saying, “I shot at him as he at …show more content…
He says, “I shot him dead because- because he was my foe,”. He may even be trying to come up with an excuse to why he killed his foe due to the amount of repetition in this poem. The speaker repeats that he shot him multiple times as well as the word because. He says because two times with in the first two lines of the third stanza. There is a long break between the both of the words because. The speaker may be trying to find an excuse during this pause as to why he shot the man. Thought the entire stanza the speaker is trying to, come up with a reason why he shot the man because he says in the last two line, “just so: my foe of course he was, that 's clear enough, although. It is almost as if the speaker is having a hard time trying to put this sentence